Woman hospitalized after high-water rescue

By Michelle Mondo :
May 14, 2012
: Updated: May 15, 2012 5:44pm

San Antonio police officer Scott Knirlberger (left) hands a citation over to Lorenzo Gutierrez (right) after Gutierrez drove his Ford pickup into high water on May 15, 2012 on Vicar street near Perrin Beitel. Gutierrez said he came around the corner and saw the water, slammed on his brakes and slowly slid into the water. After trying to drive out, Gutierrez ended up abandoning the vehicle.

Photo By John Davenport/Express-News

San Antonio police officer Scott Knirlberger (left) looks down after handing a citation to Lorenzo Gutierrez (right) after Gutierrez drove his Ford pickup into high water on May 15, 2012 on Vicar street near Perrin Beitel. Gutierrez said he came around the corner and saw the water, slammed on his brakes and slowly slid into the water. After trying to drive out, Gutierrez ended up abandoning the vehicle.

Photo By SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Traffic is diverted off of Loop 1604 westbound shortly after 6:00 a.m. Tuesday May 15, 2012 after water accumulated on 1604 at Blanco after heavy rain swept through the area over night. The main lanes of 1604 were re-opened at about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday. John Davenport/San Antonio Express-News

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A woman was hospitalized with hypothermia late Monday after her car got caught in rising water prompting her to call her boyfriend for assistance, which in the end led to both needing to be rescued.

The Northwest Side high-water rescue was called in around 11 p.m. as a storm system blowing east through the region dumped about 1.5 inches on the city in fewer than three hours prompting police and public works to check low water crossings throughout the area, officials said.

A police officer at the scene of the rescue, who declined to give his name, said the woman turned off Babcock Road onto Hollyhock Road and became stuck in rising water at the Huebner Creek crossing.

Instead of calling 911 first, the woman reportedly called her boyfriend who came to the intersection to help, the officer said. He tried to help her and not only did his vehicle get stuck but he also needed help out of the water, the officer said.

It was the man who called 911.

“The firefighters were excellent,” the officer said. “They worked really fast. Otherwise, it could have been bad.”

By the time the woman was rescued she had been in the rushing water for about 20 to 30 minutes, the officer said. She was taken to University Hospital for treatment of hypothermia, he said. The boyfriend went with her but wasn’t believed to be injured.

The makes and models of the vehicles weren’t known and they couldn’t be distinguished in the darkness around midnight as both sat on the roadway. The names and ages of the couple were also not available.

The officer said he believed the barricade was set up at Babcock and Hollyhock roads and that the woman allegedly drove around it, but according to the city’s road closure page it listed the street as closed just after midnight.

It was one of many road closures ordered as the storm passed through a bit earlier than expected. Officers were tasked to check low water crossings throughout their districts, and by 1:30 a.m. when the majority of the storms had pushed through the region, the city showed 17 street closures.

Also by that time, firefighters had been called to one other high-water rescue that turned out to be a false call. There were several reports of lighting strikes and electrical fires, including a house fire in the 17000 block of Irongate Pass just before 11 p.m.

No one was injured and firefighters have to determine if the fire that started in the back of the house near the attic was actually caused by a lightning strike.

National Weather Forecaster Chris Morris said a second line of storms that were due to come through weren’t developing as anticipated. Because of that, the NWS canceled a flash flood watch for Central and South Texas counties that began Monday evening and was expected to stay in place through noon today.

The high temperature today is expected to be around 75 degrees.

“We still got a little bit (of rain) due to this line but after that comes through we’re really not looking at too much more rain,” Morris said, adding isolated showers or thunderstorms could pop up but weren’t expected to be area wide.

He said the earlier estimates of 1 to 2 inches of rain were surpassed in some areas with the Southeast section of Bexar County reporting possibly 5 inches of rain.

The weather service said San Antonio International Airport had received 5.83 inches of rain this month, as of Monday, compared with an average of 1.51 inches of rain.